Roach: My Education Crusade - Why Suspension Stats Don’t Matter

Over the past few months, I’ve been told that there are a number of issues with our Rhode Island schools. We spend too much time “teaching to the test.” We don’t spend enough on education. Teachers’ benefits are too high. Parents need to be more involved.

One thing I haven’t heard is that minorities are disproportionately suspended by RI schools. And yet, according to the RI ACLU that is indeed the case and one of the ills plaguing our school system. They wrote, “The failures of Rhode Island’s school discipline policies have for too long funneled

children–especially children of color –out of the classroom and toward the school-to-prison pipeline.” Yes, in case you weren’t aware there’s a pipeline from Central High School to the ACI by way of Broad Street and school suspensions are the indicator that said pipeline exists, don’t ya know!?

I apologize for the sarcasm, but this type of “analysis” reeks of searching for a problem where none exists. Is the ACLU implying that Rhode Island schools are racist and targeting minority children? That’s really the only conclusion you can draw from their “analysis”. If minority children are getting suspended more than their white peers, racism or at least subjective enforcement must be the culprit. The alternative is that minority children get into more mischief than white children and pay the consequences. So we either live in a racist state or minority children are running amuck.

Sigh.

I really hate groups that spend their time on issues – term used loosely – like this. It’s not that the ACLU’s intention isn’t in the right place; it’s that there are more important education related issues in our state than suspensions. Some of you may have children who’ve been suspended before and I’m sorry that has happened. But when looking at suspension rates, why don’t we spend a few words on an area the ACLU report ignores, namely legitimate bad actions that are being met with suspensions.

There are times kids do things that deserve a suspension. We could argue the merits of in school versus out-of-school suspension, but the ACLU largely ignores how to address bad behavior and instead links suspensions with some form of injustice keeping certain kids from getting an education.

Get real.

Want to reduce suspensions? Stop looking at the race of the student and look at antecedents to bad behavior. Is a child’s home life stable? Did they just get dumped by a girlfriend? Do they have lunch money? Did they wake up on the wrong side of the bed. You know, standard stuff that 21st century kids go through while trying to get an education.

We don’t need to put teachers through some form of diversity training warning them that because 8 percent of the population is a particular minority group, they must ensure they don’t hand out suspensions to that group compared to the other kids more than 8 percent of time. Teachers have enough to think about than making calculations about the racial makeup of disciplined students.

And still the ACLU says this is an issue. Well as I continue my educational crusade when I visit Blackstone Valley Prep tomorrow, I’ll make sure to get the principals thoughts on minority suspensions and see how much sleep he loses over such things.

I’m guessing it’s less than the amount of time it took you to read this.

Don can be reached at don.@donroach.org. You can follow Don on Twitter at @donroach34.